Troll Tuesday: I Feel a Bad Moon A'risin

Hey guys, Bonkarooni here with another edition of Troll Tuesday.  This time i've got a real winner for you.  And by that, I mean I have what will probably end up being the worst deck i've posted yet, ha.  This deck is so bad that it even has the word Bad in the title.

I present...

Bad Moon A'Risin

4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Goblin Guide
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Grim Lavamancer
2 Figure of Destiny
3 Spark Jolt
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Magma Jet
4 Blood Moon
2 Magus of the Moon
2 Koth of the Hammer
1 Chandra, Pyromancer
4 Arid Mesa
16 Mountains

This deck has one purpose, and one purpose only.  Play a Blood Moon on turn 2/3.  Everything in the deck revolves around this, and if you manage to somehow pull it off, you might just win yourself the game.

The two of these combined are almost as good as Electrolyze..

This deck wants to start off by either looking at your opponents hand or scrying, preferably both.  Playing a probe without blue mana? Sure, why not! We're mono color, so we won't be fetching/shocking ourselves, might as well use that life for something!.  Spark Jolt is a surprisingly under used card as well.  Many players tell you regardless of the deck you play, you always 'bolt the bird'.  Well this bolts the bird with a small upside!.  it also picks off several other creatures in the format.  Dark Confidant, Snapcaster Mage, any fairy...the list goes on (Actually, it probably stops about there, but that's besides the point)

There she is, in all her glory..

If you were watching the GP this previous weekend, you heard the phrase "Got Blood Mooned" being thrown around by the casters a few times.  I'm sure any Melira Pod player can tell you a horror story revolving around this card.  What was the most played deck at the GP? hmm...

Now, i'm not saying this deck is going to win you a GP.  It probably won't even win you a FNM.  Hell, i'd be proud of it if it won you more then a single game.  BUT, can you imagine the look on your Melira Pod opponent's face when you win the dice roll and go Land, Spirit Guide Spirit Guide Blood Moon Pass' and stare them dead in the face as their hopes of doing anything that game crumble.

If your local group is full of players that run expensive decks filled with expensive dual lands, and you want to teach them a lesson? Play this.  If your local group is full of people who like playing the color red?...stay away.  

I didn't bother posting a sideboard for this deck because this is so trolly that I don't think we really need to talk about it.  There are plenty of good red cards you can jam in there, so you might as well just pick whatever counters your local meta game and go with it.

Happy land screwing!

The Sunday Upkeep: We're still kicking

Hey guys! Bonkarooni here.  I just wanted to give you guys a quick update on what's going on here, as we haven't made our daily posts this last week...

I was very sick this week, and actually ended up spending a few days in the hospital.  On top of that, it's finals week and a few of our writers are students.  These two things, combined with the fact that it's just hard to come up with new brews every single week, have made us slow down a bit.  I just wanted to let everybody know that we aren't dead, and we plan to keep bringing you content.  I'm not 100% what our future holds, but I do know that we aren't finished, not by a long shot.

See you guys next week!

The Vascular Awareness: Better Than All pt 2: The Obscure

Last week we looked at the 5 best cards in the format one for each color, this week will be similar but we will be looking at hidden gems.  Again there will 5 but they won't be separated by color.  These will range from the "why is nobody playing this?" to cards that you simply should be looking to fit in as meta calls.

Sometimes your opponent has a guy that isn't worth using a path on but has to go; think birds of Paradise.  This card not only deals with the issue but makes them draw it in the most awkward spot.  With pod decks on the uptick this gets a lot better and there is no way that every non-red control deck only wants 4 paths.  Some of them are almost certainly misbuilt and this is the reason why.

Two cards??? Yeah, I'm only counting this as one entry.  These two serve as a solid way for combo decks to protect themselves against hand disruption.  Hand disruption hasn't been too big lately but it is bound to have an upswing and these cards will let your storm deck or whatever crazy combo brew you have be ready.

Maybe this is cheating a little bit, considering Dave wrote about a deck with this card on this very blog.  However, with a serious downturn in Jund that means a serious downturn in Abrupt Decay.  Which was this card's worst enemy.  This card fits well in any control shell or tempo shell and acts as a serious lock piece which can often be needed for certain matchups.  I wouldn't be surprised to see this card creep into the higher tables in PTQ season or at GP Minneapolis.

I realize the majority of people reading this already know about this card, but recently I've had to tell so many people that this is one of the very best ways to win the fight against UWR control that I figured I'd make the PSA here.  This card isn't fair, Counterspell is absurd, and against UWR this is Counterspell at literally half the cost. 

Kikipod, Melira Pod, Twin and fetchlands are all among the list of things that get hit hard by this card.  If you are running a deck that can skirt of fetchlands, especially a monocolored deck, you may want to either sideboard, or in extreme cases, maindeck this card.  Hate cards this powerful should never fall off your radar and for the modern format it seems this one has been nearly forgotten.

That's going to do us for this week, hopefully next week I'll have a tournament report for you guys, I'll try to get the article done on time, but these past few weeks have been leading into graduation so I appreciate the patience and your continued support.  Feel free to shout out ideas for content you'd like to see and I'll try to make it happen!

Thanks again guys! Mason out.

Johnny on the Spot: Anatomy of a Brew

Did you ever talk to someone about brewing a deck? It usually starts with the entire deck being constructed and then going over the deck's strategies and card choices. It's unusual to actually get the details of the original thought process for deck creation out of a brewer. With that, I want to go over a brew (actually more of a tweak) and the thought process from start to finish.

My first thought is I want to stop Birthing Pod decks. I think they are the top of the metagame right now and my recent brews have failed miserably against them. In order to keep brewing and stay competitive I have to find a way to beat Pod decks. How?

Imagine you were going to an odd tournament. From round 1 all the way to the finals the only decks you would face would either be Kiki-Pod or Melira-Pod. How would you construct a deck that would thrive in that metagame? What cards would you use?

All those are good hate cards. But there's a problem. None of them are great. I've had games where I got one of those hate cards out against them and they still won anyway. Both Pod decks have versatile main deck and sideboard destruction for these cards as well as a good beatdown plan. However, there is another card that I've played against them and shut them down.

Pod decks usually try it get their creatures on the battlefield as soon as possible with disregard to sweepers, especially in game one. Anger of the Gods will kill 90% of their creatures with no chance for persist, recursion, or death triggers. If I had to stop a Pod deck, this is a great card to start with.

Now, I need to find a shell to put it in. RWU control seems like a natural fit, but I don't like that deck. It doesn't have fast enough win conditions and I often see the deck going to time in rounds because of it. In a big tournament like a PTQ or GP, those draws will feel like losses when it's time to cut to top 8.

There's also a version of Jund that runs Anger of the Gods along side of Courser of Kruphix. I'm not a big fan of that build either. Playing with Anger of the Gods cramps your ability to be able to play with Kitchen Finks, which I think is better than Courser. Also, it's a fair deck in an unfair metagame and I don't think Anger of the Gods is enough to help.

I want to port Anger into a deck that can already crush the metagame except for Pod. I think the best candidate for that is 8 Rack. This deck crushes any combo based deck except Pod. It also has solid match-ups across the board against other fair decks.

 

I have a soft spot for non-creature win conditions.

This is where the brew magic happens. Do you have the courage to splash red into a monoblack deck for one card that has a double colored casting cost? Won't this almost certainly make the deck worse? Yes and yes. If you want to brew, you have to make suboptimal choices that people will criticize. What's the worst that could happen? Losing. That's it. If you want to brew you have to be willing to lose.

My initial brew looks like this, which I've renamed Hate Rack:

4 The Rack
4 Shrieking Affliction
4 Liliana of the Veil
3 Ensnaring Bridges
4 Dark Confidant
4 Thoughtsieze
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Wrench Mind
3 Raven's Crime
4 Anger of the Gods

Is four Anger of the Gods right? Probably not. My gut tells me it will be three. But, whenever I'm brewing, I want to see the impact card a lot. I want to know if it works. I want to know what it feels like to draw two of them.

Remember, the only point of this deck is to beat the two Pod builds (while keeping in mind it will eventually have to face the entire metagame). The only match-ups you should test are against Pod decks. If it fails at either, the deck needs to be scrapped. Don't worry about the percentage points you're shaving against RWU control or Splinter Twin because you added a dead card against them. That's not the point of this exercise. The point is to determine whether or not a discard shell with four Anger of the Gods can shut down Pod decks.

Now to move onto the manabase. A double red casting cost card in an otherwise
monoblack deck is tricky. Graven Cairns are the easiest way to hit double red while still having double black for Wrench Mind and Liliana. Other than that, the standard R/B duals of Blackcleave Cliffs, Blood Crypts, and fetches will round out the red portion.

Manabase:
4 Graven Cairns
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
3 Blood Crypts
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 March Flats
4 Swamps
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

 

 This land make the manabase (and deck) possible.

 
Will the fetching and shocking be too much life loss along side of Dark Confidant and Thoughtseize? I don't know. But, I know that I won't let it stop me. Average Magic players assume that and stop brewing. Real brewers want to experiment and actually see the results in action.

Another potential casualty is the cutting of Mutavaults and Small Pox in order to make the mana work. Mutavault represents a tough clock against a handless opponent and an early Small Pox can ravage an opponent that dropped an early creature. Again, most players would stop at those cuts but neither of those seems really effective against Pod decks. Unless Small pox is cast on turn two, a Finks or Voice will get sacrificed with no real loss of tempo on the Pod player's part. They also have too many creatures for Mutavault to attack through.

And....that's it. That's the anatomy of a brew (or a tweak). You don't need to go big. In fact, you should do quite the opposite. Start small. Brew at a specific target deck that you want to hit. Don't worry about the rest of the metagame. Don't worry about a sideboard (yet). Don't worry about losing. Modern is too big and complex of a format to try and do everything against everyone all at once. Thinking about all that is why most people either shy away from brewing or fail at brewing.

See what you can learn from a micro-metagame. Does Anger really stop a Pod deck? If it doesn't, it might help you build your sideboard in another deck. Trying and failing and learning are all part of brewing and you'll never know what tidbit will come in handy in a future brew.

As for Hate Rack, I'm planning on testing it with my fellow Cauldron brewers. I will almost certainly run it at an FNM to see if it has potential for the PTQ season and GP Boston. Expect a follow-up article with either success or lessons learned from failing.

Troll Tuesday: Blue White-Blinkers, Round 3

Hey guys, Bonkarooni here with another edition of Troll Tuesday.  I wanted to take the time to share my thoughts on the progression of my deck, Blue-White Blinkers, and where I want to go with it next.  I had another chance to test this recently, and while it seemed to play slightly better, I think that there is still some work to do.

Here's the list of Blue-White Blinkers, Round 2.


The new list

4 Serum Visions
4 Path of Exile
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Remand
2 Mana Leak
3 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Akroma, Angel of Fury
4 Restoration Angel
1 Cryptic Command
4 Cloudshift
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Celestial Colonnade
4 Hallowed Fountain
2 Glacial Fortress
4 Marsh Flats
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Island
3 Plains
SB: 2 Rest in Peace
SB: 2 Stony Silence
SB: 2 Ghostly Prison
SB: 2 Spellskite
SB: 3 Vendillion Clique
SB: 4 Negate

Couple of things I realized after playing this deck a bit more.
1: Wall of Omens isn't really helpful.
2: Too many three drops, not enough two drops.
3: Snapcaster Mage

Duh.

So, when I first made this deck, Snapcaster Mage didn't actually have enough targets in my graveyard to make him useful.  With the edition of Cloudshift, this little two drop became much better.  He is not very good on turn two, but he will be much better later in the game.

Sorry little lady, you don't make the cut.

After playing this deck a bit more, I felt like my hand was just getting too clogged with three drops.  While Blade Splicer still may be a decent addition to the deck, it felt like the least resilient creature I had. 

Oh look, this is also a blue card that is pretty good.

This card is an obvious bomb in most blue decks, and while I didn't feel like it made the cut, at this point i'm willing to try it as a one-of in the deck.  I'll see how it does when I draw it, and then take it from there.

I went from 1-3 to 2-2 with this deck when I made my first round of changes.  Can we make it to 3-1 with the next round of changes? How many more hundreds of dollars will I have to spend to have this deck work? Tune in for round 4 to find out!

Next week though, we'll go back to the drawing board with a new deck!

The Vascular Awareness: Better Than All pt. 1, The Big 5

So this week's column is somewhat inspired by my last couple of columns, both the Modern interaction column and the set review.  Today we will be looking at the best cards in the format and giving them a review.  This should serve as a great guide to figuring out how to both fill spots in your brews as well as simply understanding the big players.  Decks like Affinity and Boggles will not be having much in this column because the decks are just so darn insular, they don't lend themselves to having their cards used in other spots.  This will be a test run for an article of this style, so it will go over what, in my mind, are the key cards for each color, ones that you need to have in mind every time you brew in that color.  If this article style proves popular it will be revisited.

The number one spot by a large margin, Lightning Bolt is the defining card of the modern format.  One aside: the argument "dies to removal" gets thrown around a lot by amateur card evaluators in order to dismiss cards that they clearly don't understand well enough.  Not that this is far from the same as the "dies to Lightning Bolt" argument.  When someone dismisses a card as dying to Bolt they are usually referring to the mana cost in relation to that of Lightning Bolt.  if the card has no comes into play effect costs 3 mana and has 3 toughness I wish it the very best of luck making waves in modern because it will surely need it.  The reason Lightning Bolt is so big is because it offers an insane mana advantage that is typically unmatched in this format.  As for where it fits?  If you are running red you better have a darn good reason this isn't making the final cut and even then you probably should put it in your sideboard.

Filling a similar role as the bolt, path is another premium removal spell in the format often taking out prey much larger than itself which is the goal of removal in this format.  Unlike bolt, this is less of an automatic inclusion.  Not every aggro deck will run this, many do, but some aggro decks want to place a larger focus on damage output something that path won;t always help with.  More importantly this card actually doesn't shine too brightly in midrange decks.  These decks are designed to go card for card with the other player and gain their advantage by simply playing out the better card each time.  If the other side can run out two things in a turn, or even worse a curve topper larger than the midrange deck it'll be lights out.  Most other decks will end up wanting such a card, at the very least it will make the sideboard of most decks so be prepared to face it and know that this is you best tool in white for getting rid of dudes.

One of the best, if not THE best creature in the format.  Tarmogoyf has served as a brick wall for more controlling strategies such as Eternal Command, it is a beatdown card for Zoo, a solid Jack of all trades in midrange builds, and even a backup plan for combo decks such as the recently popular "Tarmo-Twin".  This card simply grows to be so large that it must be respected immediately.  Midrange loves it for both blocking and as a finisher.  Some control decks like to for defensive capabilities as well as being able to turn the corner of a slow opponent.  Aggro loves it for the obvious reasons.  The amazing thing about this card is it even found a home in combo decks such as Pod and Twin since it acts as a "Spellskite" style card attracting removal away from the real perpetrators.  I would have said this card is limited to decks that deal in combat but after combo decks started picking this up you need to think about this guy every time you brew in green.

  

"BOLT SNAP BOLT" goes the standard war cry of a modern player.  This card has a bit more of a narrow application than some of the others on the list, but with such power it still creeps its way into quite a few decks.  It allows some TYwin builds to grind better, it gives UWR one of the best late games in the format, it gives Delver decks the ability to not lose attrition wars, it does it all.  I even tested him out in a Time Warp deck to great results, any time you are in blue make sure this guy is at least on your mind.  Just note, that unlike the other cards his role is a bit more limited, for instance he isn't making the cut in many combo decks even if they feature blue. 

While having fallen out of favor recently due to midrange taking a massive hit in the last banned list update this card is still amazing.  Affinity has picked this up for the sideboard, Pod has run it for a long time in the board and even maindecks it occasionally.  Every midrange deck will run this card even though they are still in a state of rallying at the moment.  This card is amazing for combo as it takes the disruption out, it is great for control as it removes the most difficult to deal with card, and it is amazing for midrange as it keeps the opponent off balance just long enough.  Even aggro will run it out of the board to rip wraths and combo pieces out.  This card is so good that after midrange took a beating people INVENTED spots for it, the Monoblack Rack deck that I wrote about a few weeks back on this site came to be a larger player because this card is so darn powerful.  Much like Lightning Bolt if you are in black you don't need much of a reason to find a spot somewhere in your 75 for this, in fact the issue right now is more so finding a reason to play black.

That's going to do us for this week's edition of The Vascular Awareness. I want to know: did I  choose the wrong representatives for each color?  Did I miss a sweet application for a card?  Did the article waste your time and you want you 15 minutes back?  Let me know in the comments below!

Also I have a Twitter now! Feel free to follow me @poggydude for incredibly clever things being said every so often.  

A First Try with Athreos

Hey everyone, Marshall here again.


Today will I'll sharing my first take on a deck built around Athreos, God of Passage

This deck is a tricky one to really make work, but I think this list is quite fun to play:

x4 Athreos, God of Passage

x4 Birds of Paradise

x4 Elves of Deep Shadow

x4 Doomed Traveler

x4 Cartel Aristocrat

x4 Blood Artist

x4 Voice of Resurgence

x4 Tidehollow Sculler

x4 Geralf's Messenger

x2 Varolz, the Scar-Striped

22 Land

x4 Marsh Flats

x4 Verdant Catacombs

x4 Overgrown Tomb

x1 Swamp

x1 Twilight Mire

x1 Fetid Heath

x3 Godless Shrine

x4 Woodland Cemetery

Sideboard:

x2 Kataki, War's Wage

x2 Stony Silence,

x4 Kitchen Finks (for when Geralf's Messenger is bad)

x3 Abrupt Decay

x4 Thoughtseize

I would like to preface the rest of this article by saying that this is NOT a deck I would bring to a competitive tournament. If you are looking for a grindy midrange deck to bring to a PTQ or Grand Prix, play a Birthing Pod deck. If you are looking for a fun deck to play with your friends or at an FNM, this might be for you. (For more competitive lists, please check out the bottom of this article. I've got a couple updates to decklists I've discussed in my column previously). 

Let's start with the strengths and the synergy's of the deck. This brew is wonderful at clogging up the ground and giving creature decks headaches. It also does a pretty good job of making control decks sad. Plan A is to go turn one mana accelerant, turn two Geralf's Messenger or Athreos, turn three drop as many other creatures as you can. Once your board presence is of a reasonable size, Blood Artist + Cartel Aristocrat will do a great job of draining your opponent for a bunch of life.

Athreos brings it to a whole new level. This new god card gives you a grindy angle instead of needing lots of creatures in play in order to grind out your opponent's life total. Cartel Aristocrat + Doomed Traveler + Athreos means you either get lots of 1/1 fliers, or you get to deal three damage, plus upgrade your 1/1 into a flying creature while protecting your Cartel Aristocrat from a removal spell, or letting it go unblocked for a turn. If you have a Geralf's Messenger in play and your opponent has no way to exile it, they either have to kill it twice and take ten damage in the process to get rid of it (two enter the battlefield triggers, and two Athreos triggers) or let you re-cast it every time you sacrifice it to Cartel or Varolz, the Scar-Striped.

As for some specific card choices that might be a little unusual:

I think this shell is the best fit for this card that I've ever come across. Tidehollow Sculler counts as two devotion towards Athreos, and when Athreos is in play, your opponent has to pay three life to kill the Tidehollow Sculler in order to get their card back, or you get to take another card when you re-cast it. Pro-tip: When Tidehollow Sculler's ability goes on the stack, and you have a sacrifice outlet, you can sac the Sculler so that when it's ability resolves the card you take out of their hand is permanently exiled. The reason this works is that when it's ability resolves, the Sculler has already left the battlefield, so there's no way to trigger his second ability.

This card also feels quite at home in this shell. For a while now I've had my eye on this card, but in all my other creature based graveyard decks, he hasn't quite made the cut. Part of the reason for this is because the creatures I used in other shells were cards like Gravecrawler and Bloodghast. Those are creatures that I don't want to exile, I just want to put them back on the table after they've hit the graveyard. Athreos really likes this guy though. Most of the time your opponent will want to pay 3 life to prevent you from recurring things like Voice of Resurgence, which makes sense. Varolz allows you to get additional value from your opponent electing to take damage instead of giving you a card, acts as a sacrifice outlet to get the engine going with Blood Artist or Athreos, increases your clock by pumping himself or your other creatures and is a resilient threat. 

This one is not an odd choice. This card is the main reason we're playing green. In this deck, I'd rather draw Voice of Resurgence than a Tarmogoyf. This thing gives control players headaches, and turns into quite the beater after you've sacrificed the 2/2. If your opponent doesn't take 3 damage from Athreos when you sacrifice this, they had better have a lot of spot removal spells in hand, or they will take a lot of damage very quickly.

If you enjoy value creatures and super grindy games, this deck is for you. Take it for a spin and let me know what you think!

To wrap up my article for today, I've got a couple updated decklists. I have a couple of tweaks for my Turbo Tezz list:

x4 Dimir Signet (instead of Azorius Signet)
x4 Orzhov Signet

x4 Pentad Prisim

x4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

x4 Dispatch

x3 Thopter Foundry

x4 Solemn Simulacrum

x4 Wurmcoil Engine

x3 Spellskite

x3 Vedalken Shackles

x2 Watery Grave

x2 Hallowed Fountain

x11 Island

x4 Misty Rainforest

x4 Scalding Tarn

SB: 3 Defense Grid

SB: 4 Ethersworn Canonist

SB: 2 Engineered Explosives

SB: 1 Grafdigger's Cage

SB: 3 Relic of Progenitus

SB: 1 Pithing Needle

SB: 1 Black Sun's Zenith

The only changes so far have been to replace the Azorius Signets with Dimir Signets, because we're a little more black intensive than white, and we need to make sure we can always cast Tezzeret on turn three. The other change was to add Defense Grid in the sideboard. This deck is pretty helpless against counter magic, so having a card like that is very useful.

And an update to my Counter Cat list:

x4 Wild Nacatl

x4 Goblin Guide

x4 Loam Lion

x2 Kird Ape

x4 Tarmogoyf

x4 Remand

x2 Snapcaster Mage

x4 Lightning Bolt

x2 Mana Leak

x1 Pillar of Flame

x3 Ghor-Clan Rampager

x4 Tribal Flames

x4 Arid Mesa

x4 Verdant Catacombs

x3 Scalding Tarn

x2 Marsh Flats

x1 Hallowed Fountain

x1 Sacred Foundry

x1 Stomping Ground

x1 Steam Vents

x1 Temple Garden

x1 Breeding Pool

x1 Godless Shrine

x1 Blood Crypt

x1 Island

SB: x4 Lightning Helix

SB: x4 Spell Pierce

SB: x4 Destructive Revelry (this card has been doing a ton of work)

SB: x3 Pillar of Flame

The only change here is to move the two maindeck copies of Spell Pierce to the sideboard in favor of Mana Leak. I realized that Spell Pierce is not where I want to be against the Birthing Pod decks, which is pretty much enemy number 1 in the format. At least as far as this deck is concerned, and Mana Leak has been doing a much better job. Gotta stop that Kitchen Finks!

Thanks for reading!

Johnny on the Spot: Convergence to Pod

A blank canvas is an artist's worst nightmare. Same goes for an author and a blank page. Not so for Magic brewers. They have a much worse enemy than a blank decklist. A brewer's worst enemy is creating a new deck that is just a worse version of a decklist that already exists. I call this phenomenon convergence.

Let me give you an example using a Splinter Twin deck. A pretty standard list will be U/R with the combo pieces and cards like Snapcaster and Vendilion Clique to gain value and beat down. One of the most interesting brews I've seen with the Splinter Twin shell is Turbo Twin by Cam Atkins from GP Richmond.

2 Spellskite 2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker 4 Birds of Paradise 3 Noble Hierarch 4 Deceiver Exarch 3 Pestermite 3 Pact of Negation 2 Swan Song 3 Commune with the Gods 2 Remand 4 Serum Visions 1 Gitaxian Probe 4 Splinter Twin 1 Desolate Lighthouse 2 Scalding Tarn 4 Misty Rainforest 2 Stomping Ground 3 Breeding Pool 4 Steam Vents 2 Fire-Lit Thicket 1 Forest 2 Island 2 Mountain SB: 2 Counterflux SB: 2 Echoing Truth SB: 2 Lightning Bolt SB: 1 Beast Within SB: 2 Ancient Grudges< SB: 2 Firespout SB: 2 Kitchen Finks SB: 2 Scavenging Oozes

 

 Wait! What does this card do again?

As a brewer, I love this build. It's part ramp into the combo one turn faster and part "WTF?!?" with three maindeck Commune with the Gods. Commune works great to dig five cards deep to find any piece of the combo. But there is a problem with this deck that I didn't notice at first. Mason "poggydude" had to point it out to me. Isn't Kiki-Pod just a better deck?

Kiki-Pod by Brian Liu (1st Place at Richmond)
4 Birds of Paradise 1 Deceiver Exarch 1 Eternal Witness 1 Glen Elendra Archmage 2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker 2 Kitchen Finks 1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence 1 Murderous Redcap 3 Noble Hierarch 1 Qasali Pridemage 4 Restoration Angel 2 Scavenging Ooze 1 Spellskite 2 Voice of Resurgence 3 Wall of Roots 1 Zealous Conscripts 4 Birthing Pod 3 Chord of Calling 3 Arid Mesa 1 reeding Pool 2 Fire-Lit Thicket 1 Forest 2 Gavony Township 4 Grove of the Burnwillows 1 Hallowed Fountain 4 Misty Rainforest 1 Plains 1 Sacred Foundry 1 Steam Vents 1 Stomping Ground 1 Temple Garden SB: 1 Ancient Grudge SB: 1 Avalanche Riders SB: 2 Combust SB: 1 Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1 Fiery Justice SB: 1 Kataki, War's Wage SB: 2 Negate SB: 3 Path to Exile SB: 1 Shatterstorm SB: 1 Thragtusk SB: 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
This is what I mean by convergence. Kiki-Pod has everything that Turbo Twin has and more. It ramps with a bunch of one and two drops, it can find its combo pieces, and has a much more viable beatdown plan. Simply put, Birthing Pod is a better card and strategy than Commune with the Gods. Splinter Twin can combo off faster, but it is more susceptible to sideboard hate with no secondary win condition. What started out as a cool brew will ultimately converge in a Kiki-Pod list.

One of these is strictly better than the other.

Defining convergence is a little tough. It basically breaks down into a question, "Can I achieve the same goal but in a better, more consistent way without losing the original theme of the deck?" The theme could be aggro, combo, control, or anything really. It's kind of like comparing Lava Spike to Lightning Bolt, but on the scale of an entire deck rather than individual cards. Can another deck perform the same task, only better?

 

Convergence is like this...but on a bigger scale.

In fact, I think Birthing Pod is the biggest offender in terms of convergence, especially Melira Pod. After Jund's dethroning due to Deathrite Shaman getting banned, everyone speculated that the "Ajundi" (or Jund with white) would fracture into three different decks: traditional Jund (meaning no white), Junk (green, white, black), and Naya (red, white, green). Well, that really didn't happen. So why not?

Part of the problem is that Kitchen Finks and Voice of Resurgence are excellent value cards that can fight back against removal. Dark Confidant and Tarmogoyf are also good, but they die to one-for-one removal. If you decide to go the Finks and Voice route of value, you will converge to a Melira Pod list. I claim there is no way around it. Once you decide to build a deck using those two creatures along with black you're doomed to build Melira Pod. If you replace black with red, then you converge to Kiki-pod.

Good for value and good for attrition, which is where the slippery slope starts.

How did this happen? I don't know. Jund was an attrition style deck, meaning it wanted to trade cards one-for-one and win based on mana efficiency and card quality. The post-Deathrite Jund, Junk, and Naya decks just don't seem to have the mana efficiency or card quality now that the infamous 1/2 is banned. Most of those decks at least want to explore the use of Finks and Voices to gain card advantage, but it's hard not to go down the slippery slope from there.

Part of the problem is that the Pod decks have everything that everyone wants from a modern deck. Every deck wants an "oops I just win" combo that hits consistently on turn 4 or 5. Pod has that. Every deck also wants a back up beatdown plan so discard or removal or sideboard hate don't leave the deck with only half of the combo. Pod has that. Every deck wants the ability to repeatably tutor a one-of out of their deck so they can fight their way out of a tight jam. Pod has that.

So, how do you break convergence (at least with Birthing Pod)? Well, the unpopular answer is to just ban Birthing Pod. For the record, I think that is the correct answer. Once the PTQ season and GP Boston are finished, there will be much more data for the ban (or maybe against the ban). Although you can make the case for a power level ban, I want it banned because a lot of decks converge to it. If Pod is banned, then I think the metagame would really diversify into all of those Jund, Junk, and Naya builds that are part attrition and part value. I find that a lot of my brews are pretty good against the field but miserable against Pod decks. In short, I think the two Pod decks are holding back about 8 to 10 decks in the metagame. For brewing and metagame diversity, I would like to see Birthing Pod banned.

Of course, I could be wrong. You can disagree with me. But I would like to see evidence, too. Brew something up that won't converge to a Pod list. It would be a silly request to ask for a brew that's better than a Pod list, but after it's brewed look at it and ask some questions. Does it combo more consistently and faster than Pod? Can it combo at all? Does it have a back-up plan or alternate win condition? Is it better against hate than Pod? Why should I not just play Pod instead? Most decks can only answer one or two of those.

These are tough questions to answer. Most brews will fail. If you disagree, my only advice is to keep trying and keep brewing. Good luck!

Troll Tuesday: Blue-White Blinkers, Round 2.

Hey guys, Mike here again with another edition of Troll Tuesday. For the first time, i'm actually going to sit down and show you what I can do with one of my decks to make it a little more competitive. To see the first edition of this deck, click here.

The new list: 4 Serum Visions 4 Path of Exile 3 Wall of Omens 4 Remand 3 Geist of Saint Traft 4 Akroma, Angel of Fury 3 Blade Splicer 4 Restoration Angel 4 Cloudshift 3 Kitchen Finks 2 Celestial Colonnade 4 Hallowed Fountain 2 Glacial Fortress 4 Marsh Flats 4 Misty Rainforest 4 Island 3 Plains SB: 2 Rest in Peace SB: 2 Stony Silence SB: 2 Ghostly Prison SB: 2 Spellskite SB: 3 Vendillion Clique SB: 4 Negate
To give you a little bit of background information, I took the first version of this deck to our local FNM.  I ended up going 1-3 with it, although all of my losing rounds ended up being 1-2.  While I think the deck was slightly better then 1-3, I did learn a few things.

1: When I get Akroma to flip, I usually win the game.
2: Venser is good vs Melira Pod, but pretty awful vs almost everything else.
3: 4 Geists/Blade Splicers might be a bit of overkill.
4: Meddling Mage, while funny, dies too easily and just isn't very strong.



Okay, so there are only a few changes here, so i'll start with the biggest.

This may be a bit less trolly then Venser was, but it allows me to play my Morph on turn 4, and know that it is relatively safe.  Watching my Akroma die to a Lightning Bolt before she ever had a chance to flip was a little heartbreaking to say the least.

This card probably should of made the first cut of the deck, but at the time I was convinced that Blade Splicers were the way to go.  I think having this bad boy as part of my line up makes the deck better vs a good many things, and a 3/2 for 3 is still pretty aggressive.

This is another way to protect my morph.  It also hates spell based combo decks a good bit, so it was an easy inclusion.

Sorry for the short article today, but there isn't too much to report on here.  I will say that, despite going 1-3, the first edition of this deck was a blast to play.  If you want to have fun at your local FNM and get a lot of weird looks, I totally suggest putting it together.  I'm going to build this version and take it to the next event I can, and will come back with even more tweaks and changes after!  See ya!

The Vascular Awareness: Spoilers Part 2 Electric Boogaloo

Well, we are back for another week of spoiler roundups and to start things off I'll be breaking the bad news that overall this set won't be making a major shake up for modern.  Hopefully this article will give you the tools to make some waves but I don't see a huge meta shift coming from this set.  With that said, let us begin.

 

So last week I dismissed the gods on account of modern being really unfriendly to devotion.  With that said Athreos can stand to be an exception due to having a reasonable impact without being a creature and also by costing 3 mana since the jump from 3 to 4 mana in this format is massive.  This card will work best in a sacrifice based aggro deck since you want creatures hitting the yard and you need to make the choice miserable for your opponent.  Note that if you want the guys to come back for sure you are looking for Enduring Renewal not this guy.  Also to note is that you don't want men like Bloodghast coming back to your hand and Gravecrawler isn't much better in hand than in your graveyard.  The best candidates are cards like Geralf's Messenger, and Doomed Traveler, with backup from guys like Blood Artist and Cartel Aristocrat.  Sacrifice outlets with Athreos can cause nightmare scenarios for the opponent and allow you to force bad times on them when they attempt to exile something of yours t dodge the trigger.  Please keep this tips in mind when brewing with this new spicy number and if you have any success with Athreos let me know!

This card is probably just a trap.  If you need to beat down with your storm hate card play Canonist, if you need to have it stay through all removal play Rule of Law.  I doubt the glacial clock this puts on them is worth the risk that they decided to start running Flame slash over Lightning Bolt.  Any deck that is tutor based for specifically creatures may actually look towards him since he is sturdier but otherwise I'd rather run the other two options.

 

I don't hate this card for a token deck finisher.  With anthems this can get out of hand quickly.  I'm not sure I like the "win more" aspect of this card as most cards are pretty good when winning, but as a spell that can give extra oomph in matchups where it is just a pure race, like combo, it may be serviceable.

One of the most important things during spoiler season is recognizing the new toys you are given.  This effect has literally never existed before and is certainly abuseable, but perhaps not at a modern level.  First thing to look at is definitely Profane Command and there are certainly other fun things to do with it waiting in the weeds.  I'm nowhere near smart enough to tell you whether this card will make its way into modern but I can tell you that you may regret not keeping your eye on it.

I nearly wrote off Chandra Pyromaster due to misevalution her card advantage ability and while I don't think this is as good I could very well be wrong and do not plan to write of these card advantage engines in red any longer.  Red doesn't have strong card advantage in nearly any form so cards like this can often find spots in red decks whereas if they were in another color they'd be immediately dismissed.

 

Of the two temples in this set I envision this one having the most luck as it is in a color pair that takes better advantage of card selection.  Green has a lot of one drops that often push temples out but perhaps in a deck with stange needs this could slip in.

I really wish I had more to write about, honest I do but this set is simply slim pickings.  Note that this set looks amazing for limited and the flavor is another huge hit, THERE'S A CARD CALLED HUBRIS!  But for modern this set is pretty lacking.  

Turbo Tezz

Hey everyone, Marshall here again.

Today I have my take on a Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas deck.

4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas 4 Dispatch 4 Pentad Prism 4 Azorius Signet 4 Orzhov Signet 4 Thopter Foundry 4 Solemn Simulacrum 4 Wurmcoil Engine 2 Spellskite 3 Vedalken Shackles 2 Watery Grave 2 Hallowed Fountain 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Misty Rainforest 11 Island SB: 1 Spellskite SB: 4 Ethersworn Canonist SB: 2 Engineered Explosives SB: 1 Grafdigger's Cage SB: 3 Relic of Progenitus SB: 2 Pithing Needle SB: 1 Black Sun's Zenith SB: 1 Batterskull
This deck is not finished, but it's a good starting point. There a few things I like about what it's capable of, so let's start there. First of all, this deck takes advantage of Tezzeret without needing him to win. This is one of the things that I look for in build-around-me cards and strategies. Synergy is fun and powerful, but it feels really bad to have a deck that doesn't do anything when it doesn't draw it's namesake card. Let's take a look at the various game plans when a Tezzeret isn't drawn.

Plan A: Turn 2 mana producer, turn 3 Solemn (or another mana producer) turn 4 Wurmcoil Engine. Plan B: Turn 2 mana rock, turn 3 Solemn/mana rock turn 4 play and activate Vedalken Shackles.

Why yes, I would love your Tarmogoyf, thanks!


Now picture these plans backed up with a Tezzeret on the table. This guy can come down as early as turn 3, and immediately turn that mana rock you used to play him into a 5/5. Permanently. As long as they can't kill him that turn, he's got a way to protect himself, and you can start generating a serious clock, or lots of card advantage. If they try to add more creatures to the table to pressure Tezzeret, you can follow up with a Shackles and make them very sad.


One of my concerns when I first came up with this deck was drawing too many mana sources. Between lands and mana producing artifacts, there are 35 permanents that make mana. Tezzeret certainly helps by turning signets into 5/5 creatures, but I wanted another way to make sure I didn't lose by drawing too many. This is where Thopter Foundry comes in.

This is the "mana sink" the deck wanted. It acts as a pseudo Bitterblossom against the aggro decks (by blocking with unnecessary signets to protect your life total and Tezzeret) and it acts like Lingering Souls against the control decks. Not to mention the fact that you can get some nice value by sacrificing Solemn Simulacrum to this. This card is also nice to have against the control decks, because if you wait till you have seven mana to play Wurmcoil Engine, you can sacrifice Wurmcoil Engine in response to their Path to Exile.

This card is here because it's the perfect compliment to our plan A, which is to protect a Tezzeret and let it win the game on it's own. Spellskite doesn't die to Lightning Bolt, can block Wild Nacatl indefinitely, and can protect Tezzeret from burn spells. The fact that it's an artifact and stops Splinter Twin and the Hexproof/Aura decks in their tracks is just icing on the cake.




Let's take a look at the popular matchups.

Vs. Zoo

We are strongly favored. Ramping into Wurmcoil Engine or Vedalken Shackles backed up by removal is generally lights out for them. Having a planeswalker that makes 5/5's doesn't hurt either. If you have the option of playing and activating Shackles or playing a Wurmcoil Engine, definitely use Shackles first. Losing to Path to Exile isn't fun.

Vs. Affinity

This matchup feels similar, although Shackles gets worse because of Arcbound Ravager. Just make sure to save a dispatch for Ravager if you can. The other tough part is that making 5/5 blockers against affinity doesn't do much since most of their creatures fly.


Vs. WUR Control

I believe this matchup is solid. This is essentially a control mirror, but the Tezzeret deck has a lot more threats and the WUR deck has more counter magic. The trick is to bait their counterspells so that you can resolve a Tezzeret. Once you use his +1 a few times, you should be in good shape. Also, keep in mind that if you use Vedalken Shackles on a Celestial Colonnade, you get to keep it for the rest of the game despite it turning back into a land at the end of turn.


Vs Melira Pod

This is a matchup where Dispatch, Vedalken Shackles and Black Sun's Zenith (from the sideboard) are very important. As long as you can keep them from comboing, Wurmcoil Engine should do a fine job of cleaning up the game.


Vs. Splinter Twin

The same cards are important here. Playing conservatively is very important, so don't try to pressure their life total until you are sure you can keep them from killing you, or you have no other option. However, I think this matchup is better than the Pod matchup because you have Spellskite to help out here in addition to Dispatch and Vedalken Shackles. Keep in mind that Remand is a very good card against Turbo Tezz, so this matchup is not unlosable.


Vs. Storm

Game one is really rough. Game two and three you have lots of copies of Ethersworn Canonist to bring in against them along with graveyard hate to help against Pyromancer's Ascension and Past in Flames.



This deck probably won't be crushing the Pro Tour anytime soon, but I think with some work it could be a strong, fun and interesting deck to bring to local tournaments.


Enjoy!